Realism tinges 1st-day optimism at Dolphins' training camp

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http://www.sun-sentinel.com/sports/football/pro/dolphins/sfl-hyde27sbjul27,0,5773339.column

Realism tinges 1st-day optimism at Dolphins' training camp

Dave Hyde
Sports Columnist

July 27, 2008

DAVIE - Go ahead. Call him a dreamer, an optimist, a silly romantic, an incurable Pollyanna. It was the time to be all that Saturday morning, maybe the only time for it this season.

Day One. Year One.

"We're gonna get it turned around," new team owner Stephen Ross said, leaving the steamy, first practice Saturday morning, sweating like all his latest employees.

There were new snapshots all around. There was the new football czar, Bill Parcells, prowling the sideline in a Saban-esque straw hat. There was the newest top pick, Jake Long, saying he's ready to go, and the newest rehabilitation project, Ronnie Brown, looking 10 pounds lighter after knee surgery.

Ross gave a soft smile as he looked across the field. "Hope springs eternal, right?" he said.

"Always on the first day," someone said.

"You've got to start somewhere," Ross said.

They start off the radar more than any Dolphins team ever, going all the way back to 1966, when the expansion door opened on a seashell field in St. Petersburg. When Don Shula arrived in 1970, a handful of future Hall of Famers awaited him. Jimmy Johnson had Dan Marino. All the pretenders since inherited Zach Thomas and Jason Taylor.

Now here comes Ross, and more notably Parcells, who has done about as much a front-office guy can do in one off-season to change rosters and mindsets. The latest message came Saturday. Two small names, Julius Wilson and Dan Gore, were cut because they didn't report in shape.

"Most coaches will make guys run after practice and stuff like that," veteran Vonnie Holliday said. "But to get sliced, that's huge, and sends a message that comes through loud and clear."

It's the right message, to some inexpensive targets, for a team starting from zero. New coach Tony Sparano has more.

"My message to the team [Friday night] is we need to believe," he said. "You see this slogan around town, 'A New Beginning.' We need to believe that. We're 47 [new players], some from winning teams. One of them, shoot, Reggie Torbor comes with a new Super Bowl ring on his hand.

"I told them, 'Right now it's very, very dark out. There's no light at the end of the tunnel. So don't look for it. We'll find it somewhere down the road.'"

Maybe they'll find the right answer down the road. Sparano, always in sunglasses, looks ready for a coming dawn. Other than the sparse inheritance, there's no reason to bet against anyone in this new regime or not grant them measures of time and space to rebuild.

One thing working against them is all the ghosts talking, like voices across a transistor radio dial. There is the buoyant voice of Jimmy Johnson saying his first summer, "Two guys have made the team so far — Dan Marino and Larry Izzo."

There is the confident voice of Dave Wannstedt saying how quarterback Jay Fiedler, despite an awful and injury-laden preseason, "has shown everything we need to know."

There was the voice of so-tough Nick Saban making Manny Wright cry his first summer, and the scattered voice of Cam Cameron talking of "falling forward fast."

Each of them had their blueprint. In each case, they were afforded a measure of optimism, some more than others. Things picked up briefly, then flamed out in good part because a quarterback couldn't be found. Again, some more quickly than others.

Somewhere, this first camp, Sparano will say something, do something, that will define who he is, even if it's only seen in retrospect. Hopefully it's for the better. This franchise is due for some good.

Cameron showed everyone the learning curve he faced as a head coach last preseason when he didn't coach the fourth game, turning it over to his assistants. Then saw how it was playing out and said he really did. That made it worse.

Sparano doesn't come with a name, or a portfolio for his job. But Parcells does. Ross does in another line, just like his co-owner, H. Wayne Huizenga, always did. Now they try to build something out of nothing. We'll see. Put your feet up and relax. This will take a while.

"I didn't sleep last night," Sparano said. "I'm sure a lot of our players didn't sleep last night, either, knowing what lay ahead."

You can read that two ways.

On Day One of Year One, read it like good news.